Holiday Shopping Survey Reveals What People are Shopping for This Holiday

The holiday season is right around the corner, and with it comes the biggest shopping season of the year: Black Friday. For our big Birthday Bash week, we ran a poll for giveaway entrants to voice their opinions on their holiday shopping habits and what they’re looking forward to buying this year. FatWallet members are some of the savviest, most frugal shoppers out there, so we definitely wanted to pick their brains on what new and trending products are at the top of their gift lists. We received 3,155 responses*, and we’re here to share the results with you.

80% Say Prices Will Be Same or Lower

When asked if they believe holiday shopping prices would stay the same, be lower or higher than last year, nearly 80% of respondents said they believed prices would be the same as or lower than last year. When broken down by gender, the results were pretty even between them, with men somewhat more optimistic: 27% of male respondents believed prices would be lower than last year, as opposed to only 20% of female respondents.

Shoppers Skipping Black Friday Crowds; Shop Before or After Instead

The biggest surprise of our survey was the overwhelming results of the question, “When do you do the majority of your holiday shopping?” 60% of people surveyed do the majority of their holiday shopping before or after Black Friday, utilizing fall sales or Cyber Monday instead of the famous retail mega-sale, with the other 40% saying they shop on Black Friday. The largest percentage of people surveyed happy to shop on Black Friday are 18-24-year-olds, with 52% of them saying they do the most holiday shopping on the day after Thanksgiving.

Majority of Consumers Say No to Stores Opening on Thanksgiving

When asked whether Black Friday or Cyber Monday should be designated national holidays, one-fifth said both Black Friday and Cyber Monday should be holidays. 67% say neither, which is up from last year’s 56%. In a follow-up question, it was discovered that 60% of people do not like it when stores open on Thanksgiving, which is up nearly 50% from last year’s survey, when only 42% of shoppers said they didn’t like it when stores opened on turkey day. Going against the grain once more, 52% of millennials say they don’t mind stores opening on Thanksgiving, while every other generation’s response was a majority against this option.

1 in 4 Men Plan to Buy 4K TVs

When asked what they planned to buy this holiday season, nearly a quarter of the men surveyed said they plan to buy a 4K TV. BFAds’ predicts (FatWallet’s sister site) double the 4K deals this Black Friday (last year they saw 29 50-in. 4K deals under $500), and the 9% of folks looking to buy an Amazon Echo will be happy to hear that BFAds expects to see them on sale or bundled with other products. BFAds also predicts great deals on iPhone 7 activations this holiday, which bodes well for the 15% of people who say they’ll be buying one. Interestingly, of those buying iPhone 7s, only 29% say they’re interested in buying wireless headphones or earbuds, as well, further cutting down Apple’s desire to sell their gimmicky “Airpods.”

See the full results of the survey below:

Q: What best describes your holiday shopping expectations this year?

Prices will be lower than last year – 24%

Prices will be the same as last year – 54%

Prices will be higher than last year – 22%

Q: When do you do the majority of your holiday shopping?

Before Black Friday sales – 20%

During Black Friday sales – 40%

Cyber Monday – 17%

After Cyber Monday – 23%

Q: Should Black Friday or Cyber Monday be designated as a national holiday?

Only Black Friday – 12%

Only Cyber Monday – 1%

Both – 20%

Neither – 67%

Q: What do you think about retailers opening on Thanksgiving?

I do not like stores opening on Thanksgiving – 60%

I do not mind stores opening on Thanksgiving – 40%

Q: Do you plan to buy any of these new products this holiday? (answer all that apply)

iPhone 7 or 7 Plus – 15%

Samsung Galaxy 7 or Note 7 – 9%

Smart watch – 12%

VR headset or system – 6%

4K TV – 18%

Amazon Echo – 9%

Wireless headphones or earbuds – 19%

Wireless Bluetooth speakers – 10%

PS4 Pro – 7%

Drone – 9%

Star Wars products – 11%

Pokémon products – 8%

LEGO products – 17%

None of these – 34%

Note: *With the help of SurveyMonkey’s platform, we conducted this survey ourselves online, open to all FatWallet members, and received 3,155 responses from adults aged 18 or older.